Wizards' Torrid Home Winning Streak is Creating Huge Payouts

With the NFL playoffs stealing headlines for the last month, you're excused if you haven't been paying attention to the Washington Wizards. But with football season in the rear-view mirror, sports bettors need to take note.

The Wiz have been dynamite on home court of late, winning 17 straight at Verizon Center while going 15-2 ATS in that span. John Wall and company will look to push that streak to 18 tonight when they welcome LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers to town, with Bovada tabbing the Cavs as 1.5-point underdogs at the time of writing. This is just the sixth time all year that the wine and gold have been given the underdog distinction.

The franchise record for home wins belongs to the 1974-75 Bullets, who rattled off 22 in a row in front of their hometown fans.

To say the Wizards' recent run is a surprise would be a massive understatement. Washington regressed in a big way last year, finishing on the outside looking in at the playoff picture thanks to an underwhelming 41-41 record.

Talent has never been the issue in D.C., but the group simply wasn't playing as a cohesive unit in recent seasons. Scott Brooks has flipped the script, however, as the bench boss has done an incredible job in his first year in Washington after taking over from Randy Wittman, who was fired in the offseason.

A major reason for the Wizards' home dominance has been their ability to close out games. Take Sunday's tilt with the New Orleans Pelicans as an example. Washington outscored the Pels 25-8 in the fourth quarter and held them scoreless over the final 5:51 of the game to come away with a 105-91 triumph. Good teams step up when the stakes are at their highest, and the Wizards are looking like a contender in the Eastern Conference right now due to their penchant of coming through in the clutch.

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